12 Still Sleepy But Okay

Jean decided not to text or call Samantha until tomorrow, her reason being that it was already pretty late and she was tired and needed sleep. After delivering the food and comic books, her dad went home, taking her bag and some other things with him so that she didn't need to carry them back the next day.

She quickly gobbled up her food and by the time she finished eating, it was already very late. She skimmed through a few of the comics and found none of them particularly interesting. They were all very childish and she had long outgrown them. Jean doesn't remember why she asked for the comics. It was only for a brief moment, but she had a sudden urge to read them. It was a very strange thing.

After going through a few more of them, Jean eventually grew bored and went to sleep.

***

The next morning, Jean woke up to the sound of panicking voices and hurried footsteps outside her room. Still groggy, she decided to just lay in bed and not go check out what all the commotion was about. She was in a hospital so things like these were normal occurrences. Was she a little curious about what was happening? Yes, but she was too tired to get out of her bed to go find out. But anyhow, whatever was going on, she shouldn't stick her nose in since it wasn't her business.

A few minutes after that passed and a nurse came into Jean's room to check on her. "Oh, it looks like you're awake. Did you sleep well?" the nurse asked in a polite voice.

"Yes," Jean responded.

"In that case, a doctor will be coming in just a moment to check on you. If you are perfectly fine, then you are free to go. In the meanwhile, would you like some breakfast?" the nurse again asked in a very polite, yet almost creepy voice.

"Um, no thank you." Jean was hungry but she didn't think it was a good idea to eat hospital food. Before her dad left last night, he explained to her that hospital food is very nutritious but tasted terrible. They made the food with a patient's health in mind and not what they would like to eat. She will just get breakfast later outside or at home.

"Okay, while I would recommend that you eat breakfast, I cannot force you to. A doctor will be with you shortly," the nurse told Jean. After doing a small checkup on how Jean and finding nothing of concern, the nurse then left the room. About 15 to 20 minutes passed before the door opened again, and this time, a doctor came in along with another nurse.

The doctor greeted Jean and pulled a chair and sat down next to the bed. It was the same doctor that had checked on her yesterday. The doctor did a quick examination and after finding that there was nothing wrong, the doctor put his clipboard down and said, "Everything looks good. I don't see a reason as to why we should keep you here any longer."

"So, am I allowed to leave?"

"Yes, you just need to have a family member come and pick you up."

"Oh, umm, I don't think that's possible," Jean told the doctor.

"Hm?" The doctor looked at Jean with a confused expression, unsure of what she meant. The nurse nudged his back and pointed at the clipboard on his lap. He looked at what she was pointing at and saw. "Oh... I'm so sorry."

"No, it's fine."

The doctor scratched his head. "We can't let you go by yourself since you're still considered a minor. Do you have a relative or maybe a trusted adult friend that can come pick you up?"

Jean thought about it for a moment. Did she have someone that can pick her up? As long as they were 18 or older, it should work. "Yes, I think?"

***

Jean walked down to the reception room and found Samantha waiting there for her. Jean waved at Samantha but she didn't notice Jean since she was too busy filling out forms. "So do I just sign here or something?" Jean heard her ask the receptionist.

"Yes," the receptionist answered back. "Oh, and please include your relationship to the patient as well."

"Does classmate work?"

"Sorry?"

"Ah nevermind, I'll just write friend." As Jean walked up to Samantha, she saw her giving in the paper and pen. She turned and saw Jean and said, "Okay, that's one more thing you owe me sis."

"Thanks Sam," Jean thanked her.

"Anyway, what happened yesterday. You just suddenly went cold. We were scared that you died or something."

"Sorry for worrying you. According to the doctor, I was putting too much stress on my body by not resting well."

"Putting that aside, what's your plan now. Do we barge into that guy's apartment and demand that they compensate you?"

"No, let's not do that." Things were already bad as it is. But maybe it was only this week. Maybe next week everything will return to normal. Right now, all she wanted to was go home and rest.

The hospital was on the fifth floor of the I.C.E. building. The two took the elevator down to the lobby and found Zack waiting for them there. "Heya two."

"You're here as well?" Jean was surprised to see Zack here as well. Normally during the weekends, he would be at home playing video games all day. And somehow, even though he barely pays attention in classes, and she has never seen him study before, Zack still manages to maintain very high grades in school. This puzzled her greatly and she couldn't figure out he does it.

"You look surprised to see me here," Zack notes.

"Well that's because you always stay home all day," Jean pointed out.

"Yeah, I guess I do. But that aside, I did a little snooping around and found something amazing."

"What is it?" Jean asked him.

"Let's change locations first." Zack lead Jean and Samantha out of the laboratory and found a small cafe next to the giant building.

"Ho, I never knew places like these still existed," Samantha commented as she looked at the place. The chairs and tables were partially made out of wood, something very common in the past but quite rare these days.

Since they lived underwater, they lacked a lot of the things needed to grow trees. For starters, they had no soil to even plant seeds in. Their only source of wood came from another dome that had access to things on the surface. But because the weather was so extreme up there, it only made sense that their goods are expensive. Therefore, wood was a luxury item that only a few afford. The rest of the population just used things made out of metal or stone which was a lot more plentiful since they can get it from deep sea mining.

"Hm, are you sure we can afford to eat here? Judging from how the place looks, the food here is probably pretty expensive," Samantha said as she tapped one of the tables gently with her fingers.

"Only the furniture here is expensive. The food is the same price as any other place," Zack told the two. "As long as you don't break or damage anything, we should probably be able to afford eating here."

The trio chose in the back end of the cafe and sat down. Jean picked up the menu that was lying in the center of the table and looked at it. Zack was right, the food here wasn't any more or less expensive than that of any other place.

"Aright, what did you want to tell us," Samantha asked Zack.

"Are we not going to order first?" Zack asked back. He then turned to Jean who and the menu.

"Oh, I'm not getting anything," Jean told Zack as she handed him the menu.

"Why not? Are you not hungry?" Zack asked her.

"Not really."

"Are you sure? You just got out of the hospital, shouldn't you eat something?" Zack said as he scanned the menu.

"Yeah, I also think you should get something," Samantha agreed.

"Well, I don't exactly have my purchase card," Jean explained to them. She had only just noticed that she didn't have it and couldn't buy anything. She always kept her purchase card in her bag which her dad carried home.

That aside, she was also missing her keys, which were also in her bag. This meant that she couldn't go home either. She'll have to wait until her dad gets off work. The I.C.E. building was right next to them and she could always just go and find him and asked for his keys, but she rather not do that because she didn't want to disturb him while he was working.

"You know that we can always just pay for you right?" Samantha pointed out.

"That's true, but I feel guilty having someone else pay for me," Jean told her.

"Then just pay me back sometime later. It's that simple."

"I guess that works."

"Can you pay for me too?" Zack asked Samantha.

"Hm? Why?"

"Well, as it turns out, I also don't have my purchase card," Zack said embarrassingly. "I forgotten it at home."

"... Seriously?"

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